Due to the lockdown to control COVID-19 outbreaks, up to 2.3 million Pakistani youth are at risk of unemployment this year, a joint study by the Asian Development Bank and the International Labor Organization said.
The report, published on August 18, entitled ‘Tackling the COVID-19 Youth Employment Crisis in Asia and the Pacific, warns against the development of a doomed “lockdown generation.”
The study is based on evaluation of the “World Youth and COVID-19 Survey” and arrived at estimates based on available data on unemployment in various countries.
The report stated, “A longer containment period will naturally result in higher job losses. For most countries, a 6-month period would reach into September because containment started near the beginning of April.”
“In the 6-month scenario, job losses for youth may equal 6.1 million in India, followed by Pakistan with 2.3 million,” it added.
“Naturally, the largest losses are expected in countries with the largest workforce, but the start date of serious containment measures and the severity of restrictions also have an important impact.” In India, the equivalent of 4.1 million youth jobs may be lost, followed by Pakistan with 1.5 million.
Since containment measures continued to be in force in many countries after three months, despite some relaxation, the short results of containment are best viewed as a lower bound of job losses. The predicted rise in youth unemployment levels across the 13 countries varies considerably, but rises are anticipated for all countries. In Cambodia, Fiji, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand, youth unemployment rates are projected to hit at least double the projections for 2019 even in a short COVID-19 containment scenario.
